Hugh Halter

I’ll be in Portland leading a missional orientation, would love to see you.

Thanks-

Direct link for registration: http://hughhalter.eventbrite.com ”

Sacrilege is featured in Outreach Magazine this month.

Click the link below for a preview of the book.

Outreach Magazine, Sacrilege

I love Tangible Kingdom.  At 57 years of age and 27 years in full time vocational ministry, I’m having to rethink so much about “church.”  Your writing is “scratching itches” that I’ve been working through for a long time.  I’ve actually been trying to practice much of what you’re talking about in the discipling ministry I do (attempting to create incarnational communities).  A sticking point that I can’t get around, however, is the whole idea that Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the other apostles went around preaching to large crowds – much of the time with a confrontational message.  It wasn’t attractional.  Pentecost was not a warm fuzzy event.  It was a hard hitting sermon that brought people to their knees.  My point:  Help me understand your take on doing the incarnational stuff while also preaching the gospel to a world that doesn’t know up from down.   Many thanks! Mike

Hey Mike, I appreciate the questions you posted on facebook.  Yes, we do see evidence that there were times where there was some larger, proclamational ministry happening and that some of that was confrontational.  We also see that most of what the apostles wrote to the early Christians were also quite confrontive. Heck, most of the New Testament is confrontive.  But we also have to remember that almost all the “confrontation” in scripture was geared to two types of people.  Either Jewish and thus having to confront their religious misfires, or to early Christians.  Very rarely do you see stories of Jesus and the boys hammering the non-religious, or pagan outsiders.

We also have to remember that confrontational moments were rare days and the evidence historically is that there were many more days and many more times when Jesus and the apostles walked gently, patiently and spent many years and months in spots working with one person, two or three and gaining street cred.   Jesus’ 30 years is probably the best example of incarnational patience.  Imagine being God and having all the answers but knowing the “time had not yet come.” Or Jesus saying, I only do what I see the father doing.”

None of what we read in scripture is prescriptive in that it tells us exactly what to do and of course we could take any story and make a ministry model out of it, so as it is more descriptive of what happened, I think we need to piece this together, ask the spirit what is right in each context and go from there.

So to say, “well, Jesus  or Paul confronted people in large groups in open air, so I guess I’ll head to the mall every day and do the same, probably isn’t the Lord.  The bigger issue is that the Gospel does confront sin and the gospel also calls us to love, and live patiently, waiting for people to come to us to ask us for the hope we’ve found, and then to speak with gentleness and patience.  The incarnational way is not to avoid the natural struggle people may have with Jesus. It’s a life committed to making sure Jesus is the ONLY stumbling block. Not our knuckleheaded attempts to be confrontational without relational incarnational life.

When do we get to preach and proclaim truth?  When people are following us!!! Until they are following, the model of Christ is to win their favor, win their hearts, and the rest will follow suit.
Hope that helps.  Check out Sacrilege as that is what the entire book is about.

hugh

Hey all, yesterday at our Adullam Gathering I took a little time and listed some things that make church good even if our church is bad!  After reading the list, I realize how much good happens through imperfect churches.  Hypothetically, if there is NO GOD, I’d still give my life to this venture because the local church, combined with all the other local churches in the world, have done more for humanity (not withstanding a few major gaffs) than any other social network in history. With God, it can be a city on a hill.

Here’s the list, feel free to add to it.

General sense of encouragement by being involved

Helps our children find friends & sets foundation of faith

Find life long friends

Challenges us away from selfish living

Real people are helped through our financial sacrifices

Sense of personal growth as you are pulled into benevolent acts

Employment connections

Crisis Management

Wisdom moments that change your life

Gives us a place to connect curious friends

Hope for friends who are in dire need

Ability to help with needs that alone you couldn’t handle.

People find God

People find spouses

Social connection

Over time, learn things about God and yourself

Vision to think past your own life. Crazy things we do because of inspiration of God.

Receive Prayer that changes things (healing, help)

Spiritual Covering

Practical help in times of transition

Help in times of bereavement

Last ditch financial bailout (Food and Shelter)

Marriage Help

A people to worship God with: Special Days and Nights of Tradition: (Xmas-Easter)

Leaving a legacy

Overall sense of well-being and connectedness with God and with People. SHALOM!

Fighting Consumerism

Hey friends, per our last Missio Intensive in Atlanta, I finally decided to try to put together a few thoughts regarding “how to de-consumerize your church.”

Regardless of whether you are a new church plant or an existing church trying to reform and reposition your congregation to thrive during tough ministry and economic times, consider a few systemic tweeks that can release your congregation from needless waste of both time and money.  Here’s a few thoughts.

1) Consumerism only exists where it’s allowed to.  So to change people’s orientation from going to church to consume a presentation or program TO becoming a part of people who give their lives for the gospel, begins with REMOVING things they don’t need.  It’s actually a theological impossibility to “Go to Church” so begin changing the paradigm with language and stop referring to your Sunday gathering as “Church.”  Start the air war by only using the word “church” for the people, or activities that take place during the week. Change your weekend lingo to reflect what you actually do on Sunday.  Maybe call it “Teaching time/The gathering/seminar/etc.”

2) After beginning to change lingo, begin the non-consumer paradigm by changing your own role from “doer” of ministry to “equipper” of the saints to do ministry.  The only reason anyone should get paid for ministry is if they equip others to do the actual work.  So if you’re role right now is “teaching” on Sunday, start pulling together your best potential teachers either of small groups,  & missional communities and start a monthly, “teaching training.”  If your role is as shepherd or pastor, start a monthly shepherding training.  There’s always more bang for the buck when you spend your time developing leaders instead of developing messages or programs.

3) As you move your own job into the role of equipper, deliberately spend 50% less time on your own sermon as a starting point. That should immediately give you an extra 10 hours a week to work with leaders.

4) Work to move from nebulous ministry time to becoming a coach.  View every appointment as a means to an end. The end is that they will do the work of ministry.  Have a plan of basic coaching questions for each meeting.  (What is on your heart to do? What is hindering you from doing this work of ministry? How can I help you overcome these obstacles? What is the one thing you can do this week to move forward?  As you view your role as a coach/consultant/ and connector of people, you’ll immediately begin decentralizing ministry to people who are desperate to find their place in God’s kingdom calling.

5) Move from maintaining present ministries to modeling new forms of missional leadership.  There’s no easy way to say it, Missional leaders must lead by example. You don’t have to be the best at cultural engagement, evangelistic relationship, service to the poor, etc., but you must be in the fight so that your life can inspire others.  Just like your people have to work a full time job and then learn to give an evening a week or a few hours on the weekend to missional community, you must do the same. If you have to, begin redrafting your own job description to free up space.

6) Consider part-time salaries instead of full time.  Most of the jobs we traditionally pay full time salaries for can easily be done in half the time.  So only pay for “equippers.”  This includes YOU!

7) Consider “outsourcing” basic functions like “set up/tear down/nursery/financial services.” We often spend more than we need to on services that don’t directly relate to ministry.

If you’re going to pay $$ to staff, only pay for what you really need and staff to your greatest need.  Most churches can actually find people who have a passion and gifting to teach or lead worship, or work with kids without any financial remuneration at all.  If you don’t pay for these roles, it may open up financial space for people and ministry ventures outside the church.  Many missional churches now staff “community developers” “business for mission” ventures, and other outside the box roles.  Ask yourself, what would be good news to my community and if we were to be good news, what types of people and roles do we really need? Have the courage to put money into speculative ventures that bless the culture around you instead of just propping up the same ol’ roles that haven’t been producing fruit for years.

If you really want to work through these issues, join us in Phoenix January 18-19 for our next Missio Intensive. Info at www.missio.us. Look for Missio Intensive

Hugh

Hi friends,

Today marks the opening bell for the release of my latest book called Sacrilege.  On blogs, articles, and other public comments, I try to avoid any “self promotion,” but on this one, I’m going to take the risk because I believe it will be of immense help if you are a Christian leader or unpaid saint.  If you know me personally, you’ve probably heard me say that I hate to write…but even more, I feel incredible frustration and pain over the state of the church and what may happen to our story of faith if things keep going the way they are.  Behind this, is a father’s heart and hope that someday my own children will be inspired enough by the Gospel of Jesus to give their lives for Him.  This concern has led me to write a book that transcends the issue of CHURCH, and which centers the conversation at the systemic issue that every leader, every pastor, and every Christian must understand.

This issue? “How are Christians to live in the World?” Said, more theologically… “What does it mean to live an incarnational life?’ Said, more practically…”What does it mean to become like Jesus?”

Yes, I know that the predominant conversation for church leaders has been about being “missional” but that simply means to be “Sent.”  But if you’re sent or you go on mission or you have a missional church but your people don’t know what to do, how to do it, or how to be a sent agent of Christ, it will be a bad dream!

This is why Sacrilege could make a difference.

Sacrilege is about the Incarnational life of Jesus.  In it, I expose Jesus as the least religious person you would have ever met, and show how his non-churchy ways and his absolute sacrilege with the scriptures, the Sabbath, sin, sinners, and a host of other kingpin issues, were exactly why people were drawn to him.  But the book isn’t about Jesus. It’s about us.

If Jesus said, “Go and make disciples,” we must conclude, he meant, “Go and develop people into my likeness…make them like I was.” Thus, Sacrilege is my attempt to reframe what it means to be a disciple or apprentice of Jesus’ counter-culture Gospel.

Sacrilege is a walk through the Beatitudes as a grid for Kingdom living and each chapter should begin to erode away some long held beliefs that have made us very ‘unlike,’ Jesus.  Yes, there are some pretty hard challenges and you may even find that you’re afraid for your people to really live out what I’m suggesting.  You may even find that you have to think through long held practices of Christian leadership.

But as honest and as heartfelt as I can say it, I believe most Evangelicals and Mainline Christians have no clue what true incarnational life looks or feels like and until they get it, our churches, and your church will continue to fail the harvest, including your own children.

Why do I think Sacrilege can make sense out of the mundane Christian paradigm?  Because it made sense to my own daughter.  This message sent to my church community on Facebook last week.

“So today I went to Starbucks with 3 of my girlfriends and dedicated myself to reading my Dad’s latest book, Sacrilege. After just finishing the introduction and the first chapter, I’m already feeling a stronger connection to Jesus. Lately my life has had some pretty rough patches and I haven’t been able to be my normal happy, lovin self. At this point I feel so happy and I feel as though maybe things are starting to look up, and I’m finding faith in God to lead me to bigger and better things. I just want to thank my Dad for the amazing life he has blessed me with and allowing me to find Jesus on my own, and I truly believe I have. I love you Dad and I hope you have a safe trip. I’ll be praying for you.
Love, Kenna”

How to Use Sacrilege?

The Tangible Kingdom and And..The Gathered and Scattered Church are both leadership books, but the TK Primer, and Barefoot Primer, and Sacrilege are all resources geared to helping normal people live incarnationally and in community.

If your church is a long way down the road of processing missionality, if you’re a church planter, or have a pretty savvy group of Christians, I’d have them all read Sacrilege as a preparation for missional community and cultural engagement.  Many folks have used our TK Primer, and Sacrilege would be a great pre-read or after TK Primer experience.  We do have a simple “free download” study guide available that you can get on our Missio site. (www.missio.us)

If you’ve already taken your small group or missional community through the TK Primer experience, Sacrilege would be a great read for your people as an ongoing discussion about incarnational life.

If you’re church or small group is a bit more traditional, I’d suggest you only give it to your stout-hearted, missionary minded folks. The concepts may be a bit tough on those whose faith has been centered around the church.

Also, Sacrilege would be a perfect book to give to friends that have had some church background but who have tapped out.

As you consider your own life and faithfulness to Jesus, I pray you’ll become a sacrilegious disciple too!

Thanks,

hugh

Hey all, First, let me introduce you to Brandon Hatmaker and his new book Barefoot Church.  Brandon has been our Missio man down in Austin Texas and a beautiful story has emerged in their church ANC, Austin New Church.  Most of you know that ala Tangible Kingdom, we share three aspects of Kingdom life that we committed to here in Denver.  Communion/Inclusive Community/Mission, or better said, “Being/Belonging/Blessing”.  Adullam really began through the Inclusive Community circle. As a Suburban/metro network of communities, we just partied a lot, had tons of people over all the time, tried to create a place of belonging for anyone and in a few years, we had to form a church. As we grew and matured, we got more intentional with our spiritual communion times and tried to help as many folks as we could.

Brandon’s story is a bit different. Also committed to the three circles, Brandon started with pure MISSION or blessing to the poor.  Over time, people who were done with church or not involved at all began to join with the Hatmakers and some friends committed to what James calls “pure religion.”  Over time, they too had to form a church and it may be the most inspirational story I know of in the missional church world.

The Barefoot Church is a book that isn’t over the top or unrealistic to the normal flow and pressures of life in suburbia or wherever you live.  TBFChurch is written to babystep you into the deep end of spiritual formation, ministry to the poor and ministry to you as you learn real Christianity. This book will change the way you think about your own life, what you want your children to know of Christianity, and I believe, if followed, will bring God’s favor on everything you do, especially your church.

I recommend it not just because I love and respect Brandon but because it’s the first book I’ve read in 10 years that made me drop to my wood floor, repent, and come to Jesus! Ya, I gave myself and alter call!

The other great thing about this book is that it will have a Primer released around the Barefoot Principles in January. So if you’ve been following Missio, Tangible Kingdom and have been using the TK Primer, The Barefoot Primer will move your incarnational community even deeper and wider. The Barefoot Primer will actually give you a way to invite non-churched friends to be with you in pure blessing. I don’t know any other resource that will do this.  So stay tuned but plan to take your entire church, all your small groups through the Barefoot Primer in January!  Info on release date will be at www.missio.us

As for my book SACRILEGE, its the book I’ve been wanting to write for 15 years and I’m very pleased that it will release this week as well.  Here’s a video link if you’re interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcijXoLFoNQ

Halter's Sacrilege, Hatmaker's Barefoot Church

Finding the Balance between Gathering for Church and Scattering for Church.

Hi friends, this email just came to me from a pastor who has taken the missional community bug pretty seriously over the last five years.  He’s now wrestling with a question we get asked over and over. Maybe it is something you’re wrestling with as well.

Ken says, “I wanted to asked you what you learned about the gathering dimension of your community especially the every week worship pros and cons. We only meet all together once per month and I’m rethinking my hard stance on not “over celebrating” and would love your thoughts. Secondly. How do you keep folks from wearing out in mission? I. E. How do you keep a high bar for mission and support your leaders and core teams?”

My response: To answer the how we support our leaders, core teams, missional community leaders, we do an every 8 week village leader gathering to keep them visioned up, loved on, and do group coaching. So far that’s been enough. We also offer “coaching” whenever the leaders just need more of our time.  Most take us up on this once or twice a year but Matt and I see them informally all the time so we have a pretty good idea how they’re doing.

*As far as helping people not wear out, I think you have to coach them and ask them why they are so tired. Are they naturally integrating life with lost people into normal daily experience or are they over programming even their community time.  The biggest issue we see is people getting too intense about their weekly community. They drive it like a mega-church pastor has to drive program!

We keep a 2-1-1 schedule for our folks and they don’t seem to bring up being tired. So in a given month, we say, get together twice a month for a spiritual time around scripture/prayer, etc, once a month go serve people together, and once a month throw a party for friends together.  That’s just one thing a week so even if you do a weekly church gathering, it should not be that big of a deal.  Even on the “bible study” type of weeks, we discourage a two-hour talk. For my own village, we experienced a deep time together just by downloading “sacred-space.com” and doing a 10-minute liturgy together followed by just talking. We were all hockey parents with practice 5 days a week so this was perfect and restful for our entire group.

2) The harder questions is the gathering/scattering dilemma.  We’re finding that people are succeeding and failing at all ends of this spectrum so it’s really hard to give you my impression. Because we started with a more scattered ethos, we’ve been able to do one week gathering-next week scattering; we’ve done every week gathering, and even this summer we had no gatherings because we didn’t have a building. Everyone did fine regardless. But now we’re back to weekly so we’ll see what happens.

Here’s my gut sense however: *** most Christians aren’t very incarnational and thus they need the gathering just to keep their heads above water. Yes, it does create a more consumeristic leaning but it doesn’t have to go that way as long as you create enough vision and opportunity for them to give their lives away.  So regardless, never “just do church.” Make the gathering heavy on vision, outward focus, speak often and fondly of what your communities are doing and keep a good pace of assimilation into training and non-consumer experiences.

For instance, we make everyone go through the TK Primer. And in a few months we’re launching a “barefoot primer” which is another 8 weeks in social needs experiences for all our people. And we’re going to mandate that for everyone in adullam and all our communities. So even with a weekly gathering, we’re going to keep kicking butt toward holistic/sacrificial/missional gospel life.

*Yes, I know everyone seems to think we’ve got this nailed, but half of our communities are ‘barely missional.’  People are deeply broken and their brokenness hinders missional life.  Thus, having a gathering for baseline spiritual connectedness and entrance into the missional life is critical.

For a Midwest crowd, I think I would give them more gatherings but also add some gathered experiences that push them out. For instance we always take the months with 5 weeks and take everyone out to serve together.  We also take 4-5 Sabbath weeks off, like we did this Labor day. We take July 4th, Sunday after Christmas, and a few others to simply rest and that also seems to help people not be dependent upon a church service.

Hope that helps a little

Hugh

Hey all, we’re launching a new book this month called Sacrilege.  Most of my writing to this point has been to church leaders, but my heart has really been to express a way of following Jesus that would make sense to bazillions of people who have left the church, or who have a fragile faith.  Sacrilege is about Jesus and helping people start over with God without any hint of religion.

To be honest, although I consider myself a conservative neo-evangelical, I’m expecting a little push back from the conservatives on this one.  I’ve found that whenever you let Jesus out of the box of doctrine and dogma, people begin to squirm. My intentions are not to dismantle or defame, defile or profane true faith in Christ, but I am submitting to the public that Jesus was the most SACRELIGIOUS person of all times and I hope that our world will someday be filled with millions of sacrilegious Jesus followers.

I hope this book will help you deal with a lot of submersed thoughts or questions you’ve been wrestling with and that it may help reform your own faith, but mostly I hope you’ll give it to a handful of your friends who have tapped out on Christianity or who have stayed at arms length.  It’s a book for the commoner, the peasant, the prostitutes and plumbers.  Give it a shot.

For the next 30-45 days I’ll be tweeting a sacrilegious thought from the book and if you’d like a free copy and are willing to post a blog about the book, send us your address. We’ll chose 50 people and send you out a book.

May Christ be known,

Hugh Halter

Tags: community, Jesus, love, sacrilege